Redhawks tumble at UT-Martin

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team saw Tennessee-Martin take control early in the second half Thursday night.

Southeast never recovered and suffered a 79-69 loss in Martin, Tenn.

The Redhawks, losers of three straight games, fell to 5-14 overall and 4-5 in Ohio Valley Conference play. They fell to eighth place in the 10-team league.

Ninth-place UTM (6-14, 2-7) posted its second consecutive win after having a seven-game losing streak and a 12-game OVC losing streak.

The Redhawks had been the only OVC squad without a conference road loss at 2-0. But they lost at UTM for the fourth straight time.

"We're disappointed. We felt like that was a winnable game for us," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "But I knew they were that close to being a good team. They had lost some really tough games."

UTM, avenging an 82-75 setback to Southeast on Jan. 3 in Cape Girardeau, pulled away from a 39-36 halftime lead to build a 54-42 advantage early in the second half.

Southeast got within four points twice, but the Skyhawks pulled away again down the stretch.

The Redhawks got a season-high 29 points from sophomore guard Marland Smith, who had 17 first-half points.

Smith, who finished one point shy of his career high of 30 points, hit 11 of 24 field-goal attempts, including 5 of 16 3-pointers.

"Marland was tremendous tonight. He really put on a show," Nutt said. "But we didn't have enough to go with him."

Redshirt freshman point guard Lucas Nutt had 12 points and six assists, while senior guard Anthony Allison added 10 points. Allison left in the closing minutes with what appeared to be an ankle injury.

UTM was able to slow down junior forward Leon Powell, who scored a career-high 36 points on 11 of 13 shooting in the earlier meeting.

Powell, who entered the night third nationally in field-goal percentage (63.6), scored eight points in the rematch on 4 of 8 shooting. He did block a career-high seven shots for the OVC's highest total this season.

"They denied everything that Leon tried to do offensively," Nutt said.

UTM placed seven players in double figures, led by a career performance from senior forward Andres Irarrazabal.

Irarrazabal had his first career double-double with 15 points and 11 boards. Both totals are career bests.

A tight first half featured eight lead changes and four ties. The biggest advantage was four points by both sides.

The Redhawks were ahead 36-32 with less than two minutes left when UTM scored the final seven points, five coming in the last 20 seconds after two of Southeast's five first-half turnovers.

Senior guard Reuben Clayton's 3-pointer at the buzzer sent the Skyhawks into the break ahead 39-36.

"I thought the last minute of the first half really killed us. It was a real momentum swing," Nutt said.

UTM started the second half with a 15-6 run to go ahead 54-42 for the game's biggest lead that it matched at 56-44.

Southeast twice cut the deficit to four points, the final time at 68-64 with under five minutes left, but got no closer.

Nutt said the Redhawks were lacking defensively most of the way as 21 of UTM's 27 field goals came in the paint. most of those being layups.

"We were just too soft defensively," Nutt said.

Southeast shot 43.5 percent compared to 41.5 for UTM. But the Skyhawks had a solid advantage from the free-throw line, making 20 of 24 compared to 8 of 13 for the Redhawks.

The Redhawks committed 11 of their 16 turnovers in the second half. The Skyhawks had 10 turnovers and held a 23-9 advantage in points off turnovers.

Southeast continues on the road for a Saturday night game at defending OVC regular-season and tournament champion Murray State (12-6, 5-3), which was upset Thursday at home 61-60 by Eastern Illinois.